Quote:
Originally Posted by Truenorth00
Find me a place in the world where this is true.
Show me a single place where congestion fees have caused sprawl.
Every city that I know of that has actual or effective (like NYC bridge tolls) congestion charges, has higher transit usage and higher density in the core. Put a cost to sprawl and all of a sudden people think twice about whether they really need 2000 sqft to raise two kids.
This is the bullshit often used to justify sprawl.
Again. Why should we subsidize that choice?
Their peace and quiet now means my tax dollars going to supporting the extension of roads and sewers and everything from trash collection to libraries into lower density and less efficient areas. And now folks like you want to add rail extensions, rural bus service and even transit pass discounts?
Let them pay for their "peace and quiet". I don't see why I should have to see my dollars subsidize that while I choose to live in a 1000 sqft condo in the city, and not contribute to sprawl.
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My gawd, look at how far New York City sprawls out. Congestion fees encourage transit use, as do parking fees. They do not prevent sprawl. But at the same time, every city that does this, offers a transit alternative.
You want some utopian society where everybody is stuck in condo towers, and because everybody is crammed into a small area, land prices will skyrocket, and those condos will mostly be cheap commie blocks like I saw in Eastern Europe, before sanity returned to those countries. That's all we will be able to afford.
In Canada, many people will choose to leave that environment and take their money with them to the exurbs. You want an economic and transportation barrier between city and country. That simply will not work. No city does that. There is always an alternative transportation system.
There is no possibility in charging people entirely fairly for public services that they use. We have property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes and user fees. None can be assessed for perfect and entirely fair cost recovery.